I’ve always been a fan of Yuzuru Hanyu. The guy is expressive, fun to watch and it amuses me to no end that he looks like an anime character. It’s been clear since his junior days that he has tons of potential and he wasn’t junior World Champion for no reason. Recently, videos have surfaced and it seems that this young man has a talent with triple axels. (Take that, Patrick Chan!) Not just triple axels but triple axels as the second part of a combination. 3As have been the bane for World Champions like Patrick Chan and Stephane Lambiel and here is this youngin’ doing them in combination with QUAD TOES.

Yuzuru also seems to have a 3A-3A combination under his belt. I believe this is a modified version of what will be his long program for the upcoming season. (EDIT: The original version of the video got taken down and there aren’t other copies of it as much as I know – Yuzuru’s performance of the Romeo and Juliet program, 2011, THE ICE. Here is another performance which is good but not as great as the version I have previously posted. If you have a link to the performance I mentioned, please link me.) For the performance that convinced me that he was something super special, click here.

Romeo and Juliet is overdone but this is really something special. He’s just absolutely mesmerizing. His position in the air and jump technique have also greatly improved. All the jumps in that program look so effortless…

So, Patrick Chan, look out because this kid has the expression, the quad AND a triple axel. Now the question is, who will he have to shove off the Japanese men’s podium to get on the World’s team. Or will he be able to manage that at all?